Of the wedding, Nicole Lovett remarks, "The whole day was so fun and went by so fast. Even getting ready was really fun. I got to hang out with the girls all day. " ADRIANA LAURA PHOTOGRAPHY + DESIGN, ADRIANA LAURA PHOTOGRAPHY + DESIGN

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"I'm not really into diamonds so it was hard finding something that I liked," says Nicole Lovett of her engagement ring from Travis Hayes. The couple found a blue sapphire ring on etsy.com. ADRIANA LAURA PHOTOGRAPHY + DESIGN, ADRIANA LAURA PHOTOGRAPHY + DESIGN

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Nicole Lovett comments of her wedding day, "There wasn't any drama at all and everyone had a good time." ADRIANA LAURA PHOTOGRAPHY + DESIGN, ADRIANA LAURA PHOTOGRAPHY + DESIGN

The groom's mother, Shawn Hayes, shipped handmade items from her home in Philadephia to Orange County for the wedding. "My mom started planning the wedding like five years ago," says Travis Hayes. ADRIANA LAURA PHOTOGRAPHY + DESIGN, ADRIANA LAURA PHOTOGRAPHY + DESIGN

“Mind you I was 15, so I didn’t even have my permit. So I was like, ‘Hey do you want to go on a date? And also can you pick me up?” says Travis.

Two days later, they arrived at Earl’s Diner in Orange where Nicole snacked on french fries while Travis devoured two cheese enchiladas. Later, Travis pulled out his guitar and strummed Elliot Smith songs in the car.

“He had a sense of humor which was very important for me. I never felt awkward around him, ever. Even from the first date we never had uncomfortable silence,” says Nicole.

The two became inseparable for weeks, spending every day together wandering the Irvine Spectrum, eating at In-N-Out and tracking down Travis’ favorite treat, rock candy.

“We just got along,” says Travis. “We liked the same music for the most part. She liked some really bad music like Hellogoodbye. I never liked the Get-Up Kids and she always did. I also liked some really bad music. I listened to Throwdown, stupid hardcore music, stuff that I’m embarrassed to talk about today.”

“As you should be,” Nicole teases back.

Heavy with high school drama, Nicole and Travis had anything but a linear romance. “We broke up so many times, maybe five times, usually for short periods of time,” says Nicole.

With all the brilliance of a high school boy, Travis announced he was going to take another girl to prom, after already asking Nicole. They broke up. Travis wanted more time with his friends. They broke up. Nicole needed space. They broke up.

Although often pretending not to care, text messages were exchanges and phone calls were made and the teenagers always found their way back to each other.

During their journey through adolescence together, Travis was nominated as Prom King his senior year. Although already out of high school, Nicole attended the dance in a polka-dot dress to support.

To the shock of nobody, except perhaps Travis, he was crowned Prom King. “I had a feeling you were going to win because everyone likes you,” Nicole remarks to Travis.

A few years passed. Travis graduated high school and Nicole started college. When life was finally finding a steady pace, tragedy struck. Nicole’s father died from cancer when she was just 20.

“That totally breaks you down as a person. He was diagnosed and dead within three weeks,” says Travis.

Under the duress of dealing with the heartbreak of losing her dad, Nicole ended the relationship with Travis and tried to get a handle on the turmoil of her life. The breakup was unlike the others. It wasn’t fueled by teenage angst or a miscommunication, the pain Nicole experienced, she says, created a divide between them. A gap that felt too exhausting to bridge. Travis and Nicole appeared to be done for good.

“I knew we probably would get back together. I also knew that it was a really fragile moment in both of our lives,” says Travis. “But if we were going to get back together, I knew we had to be serious about it and if we weren’t, then it was time to move on and to be OK with that. It was this tipping point for both of us.”

The decision to return to each other wasn’t an easy one. After some healing and space, Nicole reached out to Travis and told him her feelings. She missed him and did not want to break up anymore, not ever.

“Sometimes it’s tough to figure out life and it is nice to have her along side to motivate me,” says Travis.

Nicole responds, “He’s always accepting of the things I want to do, even mortuary science.”

Although graduating from Cal State Fullerton with a bachelor’s degree in psychology, Nicole felt that her passion for the human body and fascination with the grieving process suited her to become a mortician. Additionally, after an encouraging experience with an orthopedic surgeon, Travis decided to pursue his medical degree to become a doctor.

“It’s kind of funny because obviously when we met we didn’t know we were both interested in the medical field but it just turned into that,” says Nicole. “It’s weird because I am on one end of the field and he is at the other.”

The love story of a soon-to-be mortician and doctor might sound like the rejected screenplay of a vampire romance, but the two embrace their fate as counterparts and pick up where the other leaves off.

“I can be pretty aloof,” says Travis. As noted by his sometimes muddled procrastination. Nicole, in contrast, creates detailed schedules to minimize stress.

“I kind of want to pick at things and I overanalyze but I have to not let myself do that,” says Nicole. “I’ve learned to accept things and think ‘he’s not me,’ so he’s not going to do things exactly like me. I think that’s good because we balance each other out.”

Upon moving in together, their empty home prompted Travis to craft furniture for their living space. The personal project turned into a business working with African mahogany and hairpin legs that came to financially support the pair. In addition to her studies, Nicole helps Travis stay on top of orders; he’s planning on taking his medical college admission test in the spring.

More than 10 years since they first met, the high school sweethearts were beginning a new chapter. After a dinner at Haven in the Orange Circle, the couple began walking home and stopped at Rod’s Liquor for Reese’s peanut butter cups and Diet Cokes. It was then that Travis suggested a trip by the post office for good luck.

Travis made Nicole believe the engagement ring they ordered on Etsy was locked in the confines of the government building.

“I know it’s in there, the only thing separating us from the ring is that lock door,” Travis announced, feigning powerful frustration.

While she was peering in the windows, Travis got down on one knee and made the proposal with three words, as if he already knew the answer. “After that, we went back to Rod’s and got some champagne,” says Travis.

On July 13, 2013, Nicole and Travis exchanged vows in a friend’s backyard in a ceremony led by Travis’ grandfather. The bouquets were bundled with succulents, yellow craspedias and white dahlias. Their first dance was to the nostalgic “You and Me” by Penny and the Quarters. The day was followed by a mini-honeymoon to the Hilton in Huntington Beach.

In the coming months, Nicole will return to her studies and Travis will continue to craft coffee tables and bookshelves. Travis cooks, Nicole bakes. Nicole plans, Travis forgets.

Nicole admits, “We have a different way of doing things but because we accept each other it always works out.”

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